Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope Santa came and gave you all some nice presents! Make sure you don't forget the true meaning of Christmas, which is Christ and his endless Atonement!

We spend most of the day Skyping on Christmas day. All the missionaries form our zone came to Solo to Skype. So it took a little while for everyone to finish, we Skyped at both the chuches. I enjoyed Skyping my family a lot! It was great to see them and hear their voices! But the time went by so fast :c. The webcam I used and Elder Hayes used worked all right. But right after us the microphone got busted somehow and no one was able to talk to their families with it. A sister was supposed to go right after us. She could hear and see her family but she couldn't talk to them. We were trying to fix it but nothing worked so then Elder Hayes and I just left to go and try to find a headset we could buy to use. We found one for around $7 and went back to the church. By the time we got back though the sister decided to try Skyping at the other church and was gone. It was alright though because lots of other Elders were still there and used the headset.

After we all Skyped we played futsal for a couple hours. I didn't play though because I had to be at the Banjasari Christmas party and didn't have enough time to shower and change and all that fun stuff. The day after Christmas was the Jebres Christmas party. The missionaries performed a little lip sync dance at both of the parties. We did pretty good I think.

It has been a little harder getting lessons in this week because of the holidays. One of our investigators Hedrick came to our Christmas party and came to church again yesterday with us. So he is going along just great!

Selamat Hari Natal dan Tahun Baru!

Christmas presents from the wards, notice the names

- Elder Hymas

It's Beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Actually it still looks the same, not at all like Christmas. But Christmas is this week so that is awesome! Selamat Hari Natal! 

We had Elder Funk from the seventy come to Indonesia for a mission tour this earlier this week. He met with all of us and talked to us. He was awesome and I learned lots. Some things I learned is to just open you mouth and it will be filled, and the importance of being obedient. 

One of our students that goes to our English class named Hedrick became really interested in the gospel all of a sudden and came to church with us yesterday. I'm excited for him, I know that he will get baptized soon. 

Yesterday the primary from the Solo 2nd ward sang at the mall. All the missionaries in solo where there too and contacted people while they were singing. It was awesome. 

I can't wait to skype my family on Christmas! I'm looking forward to that! 

Have a great week! 

- Elder Hymas

Some Indonesians on the sidewalk playing chess. Indonesians love playing chess.

We held a fireside about Christ earlier this week for the Jebres and Banjasari wards. It was awsome

We met Mickey Mouse's Indonesian cousin at the mall! 

The primary singing in the mall

One of the 2 churches in Solo, Jebres ward isn't in this one. This one is for Solo 1 and Solo 2

Elder Baize and I with Elder and Sister Funk

Goooooaaalll.

Hello Hello,
This week has been pretty good, our new investigator from Madagascar went to church with us last week and had a good time and was active in the lessons. He didn't go to church yesterday though because he had to go out of town to Jogja to visit a friend from Madagascar, so I guess that is an okay excuse.

We had a Zone meeting this week so other missionaries from our zone came and had slept over at our house, there is always a party when that happens. We also have a mission tour with Elder Funk of the seventy tomorrow so the zone came back to Solo and we had another sleepover/party last night too.

We learned that obedience as a missionary is very important. Sometimes it is hard to be 100% obedient but I am going to try my hardest to become more obedient because miracles follow obedience.

We played futsal on Saturday night with the youth, I made 3 goals in one game so I was pretty proud of that and thought I would share. Because the people here are pretty good at soccer.

My new futsal shirt

Oke, have an awesome week!

-Elder Hymas

A delicious coconut beverage that I can buy anytime I want for less than $1

JJ from Madagascar

So this week has been a pretty cool week. At the beginning of the week I wrote some letters for people for Christmas. On Wednesday I really wanted to send them after we ate lunch so we went to the post office, which is a good bike ride away, and I sent my letters. As I was sending them a person who was a little darker than the average Indonesian came up to us and asked us in very good English if he could talk to us once we were done. We were a bit surprised and said yes of course. So after I finished mailing we went out of the post office and talked to him. His name is JJ and he is new in Indonesia. He has only been here for 3 months and is still learning Indoneisan. He came here from his home in Madagascar to go to University here, and he plans to stay here for 3 years. While he was living in Madagascar he took lessons from Mormon missionaries, but he had to tell them he had to stop because he was moving to Indonesia. Once he got here he never saw any Mormons or Christians and thought everyone here was Muslim. But then he saw us at the post office came right up to us! It was awesome. So we showed him where the church is and gave him the first two lessons there and it was great and we did it in English, so I did most of the teaching haha. He went to church with us yesterday. It was a pretty cool miracle if you ask me. So I really hope he progresses fast and gets batpized.

I also went on splits with one of our zone leaders, Elder Murphy. It was good, Elder Murphy is a great guy.

We had 2 potential investigators who were really promising. They live next door to a member named Sister Samsi who referred them and helps us teach them. But apparently one of the members from our ward asked sister samsi about them and visited with them and insulted them or something because next time we met with sister samsi she told us about it and that they gave our Books of Mormon back and don't want to visit any more, very upsetting.

The weather is the same, it rains everyday and it is hot, but not as hot as it used to be.

Well have a great week everyone


- Elder Hymas

Our Christmas tree

baptismal font selfie

I'm thankful for A/C

This week was a pretty good week, it just flew by. These past two weeks felt like nothing. Probably because we are working hard, yeah I'm gonna stick with that. We had Thanksgiving dinner provided to us by the mission couple Elder and Sister Lewis. It was yummy and pretty close to an american thanksgiving dinner. I said I was thankful for A/C when we went around saying what we were thankful for. Man I love air conditioning. 

We have got a few referrals from a sister in our ward that was baptized pretty recently, we have visited all of them with here with us. I think we have some real potential with some of them so I'm pretty excited to continue to visit with them. Member referrals are pretty much the best way to get new investigators, so I love it when members actually give us referrals.On Thursday I went on spits with Elder Hayes in the Banjasari ward. It was cool and we found a new potential investigator. We rode our bikes sooo much and there are HUGE hills in the Banjasari area. I'm glad I don't have to ride them everyday. 

I still have yet to have a progressive Investigator, we're trying though and hopefully we get some with these new referrals that we got. 

Have an awesome week!

- Elder Hymas

Sweeping the Park

Kids playing in the rain. (kid doing a handstand in the background)

Thanksgiving dinner!

My office.

Is it Thanksgiving already?

Wow this week went by very fast, We must have been working hard or something. It still rains every day here, rain is fun though. Nothing too exciting really happened this week, We continue to teach people and try to find people but it isn't the easiest to do that here.

We had a zone meeting this week here and that was good. It is fun to walk around with a bunch of white people dressed up in the middle of Indonesia. Lots of people stare.

Thank you family for sending me that birthday package! I got it last night. I am wearing the new tie you sent me right now. And thanks for the American money, I'm sure I can find use of it here in on the other side of the world haha.

The 2 districts here in Solo are having a big thanksgiving feast later today with the mission couple here. That is going to be awesome and yummy! Anyway, that was about it for this week, Hope you all have a great week!

- Elder Hymas

Birthday Party!

Some Royal guards

Rainy season begins and bats

This week was a good one. My new companion Elder Sadiyono is awesome and speak a lot of Indonesian haha. I have learned a lot this week from him. Elder Boenari is cool too, Indonesians are fun people.

I guess the rainy season has started here in Indonesia because it has rained every single day this week, and when it rains, it pours. It is nice though because the temp cools way down when it rains so It actually feels kind of nice outside. We have had some bats fly into our house and creep around, it is kinda freaky haha.

Elder Sadiyono and I taught lessons this week like usual, we would get a little lost going from house to house because Elder Mangum knew the way around here so I just followed him and now he isn't here! I remember mostly where people live so we have been getting by.

One of our Investigators named Hanung went to church yesterday with us, so that was awesome! I think he is progressing, all we need to do now is help his stop smoking. Smoking is a big problem here, everyone and their dog smokes.

I also got the opportunity to give the gift of the Holy Ghost and ordain the sister's investigator yesterday in sacrament meeting. I was pretty nervous but I think I did a good job. They asked me right before sacrament if I could do it so I only had about 10 minuets to prepare. It was an awesome experience though. She is just so happy that she is a member of the church now.

My birthday was on Saturday too! We went out to eat dinner at a pretty nice restaurant near our house called Steak on Fire. They give you a steak and then they set it on fire in front our you and it is pretty cool. A bunch of missionaries from the 2 districts in Solo where there. It was fun. Afterwards they caught me by surprise and dumped a bunch of flour all over me and thew eggs at me. That is tradition here in Indonesia for birthdays haha. It was fun and really messy!

I forgot my SC connector thing for my camera so I can't send pictures this week but i'll send some next week

Have a great week everyone!

- Elder Hymas

New Companion

This week has been pretty good. It was Elder Mangum's last week in Solo so we went around and taught people for the last time with him and took lots of pictures. My new companion came in last Thursday, His name is Elder Sadiyono. He is a native Indonesian so my Indonesian skills should get a lot better. He knows English pretty well but still learning. He is a really funny guy and I'm glad to be able to work with him. Elder Hayes, who just finished his training, started training a new Elder last Thursday. He is training Elder Boenari, he is also a native Indonesian. So in our house there is me, my companion Elder Sadiyono, Elder Hayes, and his companion Elder Boenari.

We had stake conference this last weekend. We had a 2 hour session at the church on Saturday and then another 2 hour session at a pretty nice hotel on Sunday. The mission president was there so I got to say hi to him. Other missionaries from my zone came too and they all stayed at our house Saturday night. So there was like 16 Elders staying at our house, craziness. We are trying hard to have our Investigators go to church and read the Book of Mormon on their own but it is proving difficult.

Other than that nothing really too exciting happens this week, It is starting to rain quite a bit here now, and when it rains, it pours. There have been a number of times where we have gotten completely soaked from rain while riding our bikes. I have stained a couple of shirts too from the dirty water that flys at you while you ride your bike on the road so I'm going to have to bleach them I guess.

Hope everyone is doing well! Have a good week!

Mangum and I with some members and their neighbors.

me and Elder Sadiyono

- Elder Hymas

Cobra blood tastes different

Things are going pretty well here in Indonesia. It is really hot, but that never changes haha. The work is going along. It is hard sometimes because our investigators hardly ever keep the commitments we make and don't read their homework. A new potential investigator we found last week is kinda interesting. We visited her again this week and did more of the first lesson. Then we asked her if she would follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by the proper priesthood authority. Then she said sudah, which means she already has been baptized. She is Catholic and believes that her church has the proper priesthood authority to baptize. Se we went over how we believe that we are the only church to have the power restored and the priesthood was lost when the apostles died. And she seemed to take it in and agree. Then we asked her again if she will be baptized and she still said she has already been baptized by the right priesthood. It was kinda frustrating so we just asked if she would read the Book of Mormon and pray if it was right. Hopefully she will.

For Halloween we had a district meeting so we changed name tags for that meeting, that was our costumes for the day.

Last Tuesday we had a pretty unusual food. We drank Cobra blood with bone marrow and a gall bladder in it. It tasted pretty different. We also ate the Cobra in a variety of ways. It was good, it tasted like chewy snake.

The transfers are happening on Thursday, My companion is going to Jakarta and my new companion I think is an Indonesian. I forget his name though. It should be cool though, hopefully my language gets a lot better with a native companion.

Have a great week!

-Elder Hymas

Me drinking the blood of a deadly cobra, no big deal

I found a statue of Luke here, weird 

The sister's investigator that got baptized yesterday

New bike and Futsal

This week was good. My new bike is way better than my old one! I just hope no one steals it now haha. We taught lessons to our less-active members and we are starting to have some show up to church again so that is awesome. Unfortunately, we had to drop one of our investigators named Tito. He was an old guy who has been an Investigator for like 5 years. He always just gets new baptismal dates, but never goes to church and keeps smoking. He wants our church to pay for all his medical bills like the church he is "going" to now does, he wants to know what our church can give him. Yeah how about your eternal salvation? But he just doesn't understand when we tell him and he never reads the Kitab Mormon so for now we will focus our efforts on others. Too bad. Another one of our investigators, Rhismond, said he was going to come to Church for sure this week. And he didn't... so that was sad. Hopefully we can get him too and he will be baptized and stay active and everyone is happy!

We were proselyting this week and found 2 more potential investigators. We gave them the first lesson and I don't know if they were very interested or not but we'll come back and find out.

A sport they love to play here is Futsal. It is like soccer except the balls and the courts are smaller. It is pretty fun but I'm no good at it. I'll probably get better because that's like all we play here.

I still haven't found out who my new trainer is going to be, I should find out soon though. It's good to know that everything is going well at home!

Here some pictures of food here.

This is chicken head plus some various guts on a stick

Some nice and healthy fired Ice cream

Some chicken foot soup, Yum!

- Elder Hymas

This week has been pretty good. Nothing too exciting really happened. We had PLD on Tuesday and Wednesday. It is like a meeting with our zone and the mission president and his APs. We had Interviews with him on Tuesday. Mine went fine, I guess I am getting a new trainers though halfway through my training. Elder Mangum has been in Solo for 6 weeks (months?) already and is getting a transfer so I should be getting another trainer in 2 weeks. On Wednesday we had a meeting most of the day with the president. It was good, pretty long. I broke my piece of junk bike for good on Wednesday haha. The frame just straight up snapped so we have been without bikes for a few days and just walk, it is so slow. We are going to buy a new bike today I think. My companion and I are getting along great, it's kind of a bummer he is leaving so soon but whatevs. I might have gotten sick from the food, I'm not really sure what it was, but it wasn't fun.

Yeah the groom at the wedding was dressed pretty weird. The bucket hat isn't a fashion thing here haha, it was the first time my companion or I have seen it. It must be for royal people or something.

Elder Hymas showing you his good side.

Love ya

-Elder Hymas

Things are going alright here, most of our investigators are pretty interesting. I don't think they are really progressing though. They say they will go to church and they want to but then they never come. pretty frustrating. We need some new investigators but it is hard because we can't knock on doors and everyone here is Bob (our code name for Muslim).

On Tuesday we tried proselyting and we scared some people and got some gates closed and locked on us, that was pretty fun. On Wednesday we wen't to a wheelchair charity thing that the church donated a bunch of wheelchairs to. It was pretty cool, there was a white guy from Canada there so that was fun. (you don't see many white people here). On Thursday we went to a meeting with the stake president and the mayor's office staff of Solo and they talked about why there are white people in the city and what are they doing here. I didn't understand much of what was going on but there was free food so I was all for it. On Friday we taught lessons and English class and stuff. My companion got really sick so we went home early. We watched General Conference on Saturday. It was all in Indonesian so it was hard to Understand. We also went to a royal wedding Saturday night. It was super interesting. They dressed really weird and sang really weird songs and danced really weird dances haha. It was cool though. I didn't get any sleep at all last night. I got really really sick and hurt all over. I had a fever and thew up and yeah.. So we spent all yesterday resting and trying to deal with my sickness. It wasn't very much fun at all. After 24 hours I started to feel better, Hopefully I keep feeling good, I fell kinda eh right now. Pretty annoying.

Us at the wedding

The Bride

The groom with his cool bucket hat

Week 2 in Indonesia

I flew out to my first zone last Wednesday. I am in Solo, in the Jebres ward. It is a little bit cooler here I think, still really hot! My companion is Elder Mangum, he is a really nice guy and a great missionary. We are in the same house with Elder King and Elder Hayes. They are all really cool elders. I'm going to have a good time here I bet.

It is still pretty hard right now understanding what people are saying in Indonesia, especially the natives, but I'm trying. We ride our bikes everywhere, so that, plus the heat, makes life a bit difficult. I should used to it. My bike is a piece of junk too. It has broken twice so far and we had to get it repaired each time. It only costs about a dollar to fix it so whatever.

This Weekend was sacrifice days for the Muslims. They pretty much sacrifice tons of cows and goats in the public. The missionaries are friends with a Muslim named Jon, they invited us to watch them sacrifice a cow and a few goats. It was pretty gnarly. I got it on video and took lots of pictures. We ate some of the sacrificed goats and cows at Pak Jons house yesterday. I ate the intestines and guts and whatever else was there. It was pretty good.

I killed my first rat last night. I saw it run past me when we got in the house and we hunted it down for a bit. We were all armed with brooms and mops, I had the trap. Once we found it I got it in the trap, but while we were busy being victorious he escaped the trap and we lost him again. So the hunt continued! we found him in my and elder Mangum's office. Elder Mangum smashed it with a pan a few times and it died. We disposed of it in the street in front of our house.

We went to some waterfalls today, it was super fun. We saw some monkeys. One of the Elders touched it and it almost attacked him, it was super scary and super funny haha.

- Elder Hymas

First Week in Indonesia!

The plane rides where long! The planes were nice though. I had to resist the temptation of watching moveis and listening to music on the cool touch screens they had. But I endured! We landed in Indonesia and wow! It is sangat panas sekali! (very very hot!) Seriously, it is like non stop sweating until we go somewhere with A/C. I have never before truely appriciated how amazing air conditioning is. Uncle Ken does some good work!

The first night I was super tired so I went to bed at like 6:30. My first area will be in Solo Jebres, and my first real companion will be Elder Mangum. Solo is about an hour plane ride away from Jakarta. We are waiting to go to imigration to get my ketas, which is like our temporary ID here. So I am staying with the APs in their house for the time being and I am temorary companions with one of the APs named Elder Simanungkalit. He is a native Indonesian and he is pretty awesome.

We have taught a few lessons since I've been here. The other elders do most of the teaching becuase I don't know the language that well yet. Most of the people here (and there are a lot) are very poor. Some of their houses are about the size of my parent's closet. It is very different and humbling. The people here are all so nice and accepting. They are also all very very short and small and brown. Unlike me. I stick out here quite a lot haha.

Jakarta is really really big! There is a lot of pollution in the air, becuase of the millions of cars and even more motorcyles here. The traffic is downright crazy, everybody is weaving in and out and it takes foever to get places. We mostly use the buses and angkots. But in Solo I will be biking everywhere, so I will probably die.

The food is really good here, we mostly eat at the carts on the side of the streets. Lots of rice! Although we did eat at Burger King this afternoon, not really embracing the culture but whatever haha.

I'm doing good, still trying to learn the language and all. Indoneisa is very different from America, that's for sure.

Love,
Elder Hymas

My Breakfast

This is an Angkot. Like a minibus

One of my first lessons with Deara

Elder Simanungkalit and Myself

Elder Hymas has safely reached Jakarta.  Here is a photo of  the group that went out with him and their Mission President and his wife.  He looks happy but I'm sure he is tired after traveling for 35+ hours.

Hey good news! We just got the news that our visas came in! So we are going straight to Indonesia after all! What a tease huh? We spent the whole week thinking we weren't going to Indonesia for a while. We were pretty grateful haha.

Last P-day at the MTC!

This week has been a bit harder than the others. My throat has been sore for like a week and a half and it is super annoying. I keep coughing all night. So I have an appointment with a doctor later on today for a check up, to make sure I don't have strep throat or anything. We are all pretty anxious to leave the MTC and go out into the field. Sounds like things are going pretty good at home, that's good. So the last devotional on Tuesday was a pretty cool one! It was the last devotional I would be at here so I was hoping for an apostle or something. I was rather satisfied to see that Richard G. Scott of the twelve came to speak to us. I was in the 2nd row so I was was pretty dang close to him, like 14 feet away! He is getting pretty old haha. He spoke to us about the power and importance of prayer. it was a very good talk and I am trying to say more heartfelt prayers now. A quote that he shared that I liked was about goals. He said, "To reach a goal never before attained, you must do something never before done." That's a pretty cool quote, and straight out of the mouth of an apostle so it must be important.
Oh yeah and none of our visas came in for Indonesia yet so we should be getting a temporary reassignment to somewhere in the US for a bit. We should get that call later today or tomorrow. I was a bit disappointed when we first found this out (which was last Friday), but I remembered that it is not about where we go on our mission, it is about what we share, and that is the gospel of Jesus Christ. So I'm excited to go out and share this message where ever. And hopefully I'll be in Indonesia soon. My teacher said that this hasn't happened for the Indonesian missionaries in like 8 years. He called the travel office and told us that we should be getting them in about 6 more weeks. Hopefully I don't forget much of the bahasa (language) I better keep practicing.
If I find out later today where I'm going for my temporary reassignment I'll try and tell ya. If I find out tomorrow or something, I can call you at the airport right before I hop on the plane and tell you haha.
Have a good week!

Love,
Elder Hymas

I'm doing pretty good, bahasa Indonesia is baik. Saya belajar lebi banyak setiap hari. Saya tahu bawha ingil Yesus Kristus benar. I'm so glad to have the chance to go out on a mission.  I'm ready to leave for Indonesia like today but I can endure 11 more days. All of the devotionals are super good. Most of them are focused on missionaries of course. We have a devotional every Tuesday night and we have firesides every Sunday night. They are pretty much the same thing but the more 'important' people come on Tuesdays. Hopefully we get an apostle before I leave, that would be awesome, but I only have 1 more Tuesday left so the chances are slim. But there hasn't been one here for at least like 9 weeks that I know of, so maybe one might show up?


I really liked one part of a devotional, given by Joseph W. Sitati of the seventy. He said that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the best gift you have ever been given and it is the best possible gift that you can ever give. A lot of the people I am going to teach are going to be so poor I probably won't understand until I actually get there. You will want soo much to give them a better house, clean water, clothes, food, and money. They barely live day to day over there. But the best gift I can give them, despite all the other necessities I've listed, is the gospel. And that's what I'm going to be doing. So that gave me comfort as I listened to his talk and I'm sure it will bring me strength when I'm out on the field.

Kesaksian saya ini.
Saya tahu bahwa Kitab Mormon benar! Saya tahu bahwa Thomas S. Monson nabi yang hidup. Saya percaya tahu keluarga pasat ingil Yesus Kristus, dan saya sangat mengasihi keluarga saya!

Thanks for the package, can't wait to get that! Love ya!
- Elder Hymas

Half way through with the MTC!

This week felt like it just flew by, at this rate I'll be in Indonesia in no time! I love the MTC and it is a great place, but I'm pretty much done with it now haha. I'm ready to go to Indonesia! I'm starting to be more careful with the food I eat here, one could gain a lot of weight at the MTC if they weren't careful.
The language is going well, I am learning more each day. It is pretty neat how much you learn here at the MTC. I know more Indonesian than I know German, and I took 3 years of German. Crazy stuff. The elders in my district are all doing really well too. My companion, Elder Arthur, is doing well. He just got released as district leader last Sunday so he is happy about that.
This last Tuesday we had a devotional given by Don R. Clarke of the seventy. It was a super good talk, about missionary work, like most of them are. One part of his talk really struck me though. It was when he spoke about the importance of reactivation, especially in your own family. He asked all those who have inactive family member, whether it be parents, siblings, cousins, or aunts and uncles, to stand up. Pretty much every single person in the gym stood up, and there were a LOT of missionaries there. I know there are members in my family who have gone inactive and can't enjoy the blessings the gospel brings into their lives. He told us that "If we love them, we need to bring them to the temple". I couldn't stop thinking about this the rest of the night. It is soo important that we go to the temple, and I want all my family to go there, because I love them. Brother Clarke assured us that the best thing we as missionaries can do is serve God and serve and love the people of your mission to the best of your ability. If we do this then our families will be blessed and possibly come back to the church. So that is what I am going to do, I will work my hardest on my mission. But those who are reading this, you need to do your part and bring those to the church, especially your family. If you love them, your brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, cousins and friends, you need to connect them with the temple.
Anyway, I'm glad I am out here serving a mission, I know there is no other place I would rather be. 3 more weeks of the MTC and I'm out of here!

- Elder Hymas

Week 2 at the MTC.....

I think the days are starting to go by a bit faster now that we are in the hang of things here. We are pretty much in class like all day. And if we are not in class we are either eating, sleeping, or playing basketball. Class is super good though, we learn a bunch and I think my Indonesian is getting pretty good now. I am afraid that I am gaining weight here at the MTC, I was hoping this wouldn't happen but it seems that it was inevitable. I weighed myself for first time in like a year and it was not a good experience, that much I'll say. But there is hope! I've heard that most people lose lots of weight on there mission to Indonesia so I'll probably lose like 60 pounds and be super fit when I get back so no worries.

A lot of people in my district get these cool things called letters, almost daily. Now I know that I have gotten some, but a few more wouldn't hurt right? Using the DearElder mailing system is super cool because we get the letter that day, and it would make me so happy. But do you know what would make me happier? If I got some cool hand written letters, especially form my siblings. That would be sweet! Getting letters form friends and family here is like finding gold or something of similar value.

A scripture I read this week was in one of my favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon, it is Ammon being awesome. it says,
11 But Ammon said unto him: I do not boast in my own strength, nor in my own wisdom; but behold, my joy is full, yea, my heart is brim with joy, and I will rejoice in my God.

 12 Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will notboast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever.

I know that, like Ammon, I am weak without God. But with God, I can do all things and I know that with God, I can teach and serve the people of Indonesia and make a huge impact like Ammon did with the Lamanites.

Love,
- Elder Hymas

Apa kabar? (how are you?) Nice to know you guys are all doing well, I am doing absolutely great here at the MTC. It has only been a week but my testimony for this gospel and my love for the scriptures have grown exponentially! I find so much joy and comfort reading the scriptures every day. It is a wonderful feeling to be surrounded by the Holy Spirit constantly here at the MTC, it makes adjusting to life here and missing family and friends a lot easier. 

My companion is Elder Arthur, he is from Brisbane Australia. He has a cool accent and he is a really nice and fun guy. Him and I have been getting along just fine. Our district has 9 Elders in it, there is myself, Elder Arthur, Elder Chou, Elder Gartz, Elder Thomas, Elder Getter, Elder Willionson, Elder Paskett, and Elder Lieske. We are all becoming very close friends, and pretty much go everywhere together. 
We have learned a lot of Indonesian this first week, I can say prayers, bare my testimony, teach lessons, and get to know people all in Indonesian. The gift of tongues is real! The food is exactly like the Cannon Center back at BYU so I'm used to it, it is pretty good. Some people hate it, some love it. It's weird. We have class like all the time here but we are learning a lot and our teachers are super cool!

During class Elder Paskett shared a "prophecy" with us about the Indonesian food, it is found in Jeremiah 4:19-21, it reads,.
 19 ¶My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketh a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.
 20 Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is spoiled: suddenly are my tents spoiled, and my curtains in a moment.
 21 How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet?
We all thought it was pretty funny and laughed quite a bit, my teachers here at the MTC informed us that the food in Indonesia is actually really good and we have nothing to worry about, so that's good. 
It is very busy here at the MTC, but that's good because we have a lot to learn and a lot of work to do in only a short amount of time. Today is our first P-day and we went to the temple this morning, itwas awesome! The Provo temple is very beautiful! I am very happy here on my mission and I know there is no where else I would rather be, I love you all!
- Elder Hymas